Culture shock: Driving an electric car

The setup
The Nissan Leaf arrived late in the day for a weekend test drive with its Li-ion battery in the depleted zone (well under 17% of full charge, as indicated on the display gauge). But this was no problem, because the car comes equipped with a charger "cord" having a standard EV charging connector that uses a household 110V, three-prong grounded outlet. Power conditioning and control electronics are in a box on the cord about eight inches from the three-prong plug.

It turned out this arrangement was awkward in that the combination of the short cord from the electronics box coupled with its weight tended to pull the plug from the outlet. This would not have been a problem had the outlet been closer to the floor (as is standard inside a house) so that the box could have rested on the floor. But in a garage where electrical codes often dictate outlets be located about chest high (convenient for workbenches and away from moisture), some arrangement has to be made. A hook or restraint on the electronics box housing might help to attach it to a support, or Nissan could have made the distance from the plug to the box longer so it could rest on the floor. I used a cardboard box on a garbage can to support the electronics box.

Upon plugging the charger into the Leaf's receptacle under a small door on the hood, the onboard computer told me it would take 26 hours for full charge (and about half that if I had a 220V charger available)! Turns out it was 35F outside air temperature (OAT) when I plugged in the charger in the evening, so the computer likely based charging time on that temperature. The actual full charge took about 20 hours, which is what Nissan says is nominal when using the 110V (1.4 kW) "trickle charger."

Most Leaf owners would not want to put up with such a long charging time, unless they could limit their driving so as not to go below about half a full charge. But the others will probably opt for the available "home charging dock" (3.3 kW) that runs off a 220V line (view video). This unit costs roughly $2,200 (installed in new construction, but "the customer is eligible for a 50% federal tax credit up to $2,000," according to Nissan) and allows a full charge in eight hours, adequate for commuters topping up overnight. A $700 option on the car provides a receptacle next to the standard charger socket that will mate to the cord on publicly available DC charger kiosks (50 kW) to give an 80% charge in 30 minutes. The Leaf also has a feature that can be set to only charge the battery to 80% capacity to extend battery life.

As the car battery is recharged, a set of three blue lights on top of the dash cowling and visible through the windshield light and flash through a sequence to indicate the level of charge. By late afternoon of the second day these lights were out, and the battery "topped up." The dash display indicated a maximum range of 93 miles. The map display (navigation is standard on the Leaf to help with battery management and in locating charging stations) showed the 93 miles as well as a smaller, "anticipated" range circle of 65 miles. These numbers are based on how the car was driven in previous charging cycles and battery capacity (based on its temperature). OAT (46F at the time) could enter the calculation as well.

I turned on the headlights and windshield wipers to see if these power draws would affect the range numbers, but the figures stayed the same. (The Leaf uses high-brightness LEDs for its low beams to minimize their power drain on its low-voltage 12V battery.) However, when I turned on the climate control, the max range number dropped to 82 miles. But the car can run with outside air flowing through the cabin without the climate control on (much like back in the day when most cars did not have air conditioning).

Later in the evening, I set out on a short drive, which produced the following results:

Start with OAT at 42F and 91 miles max range figure (with climate control off).

After driving 2.7 miles over town roads up to 40 mph with heater and headlights on, display indicates 77 miles range left.

Return trip diverted to use Interstate for three miles at 65 mph. Exiting Interstate at 7 miles total, max range is given as 70 miles.

Drive home on town roads at 30 mph. At a final driving distance of 8.9 miles, max range stays the same at 70 miles.

Turn off climate control and max range number jumps to 83 miles ("anticipated" range number then is 58 miles).

Battery power is down to 87% and usage was 2.8 mi/kWh.

The remainder of the time I used the Leaf for short trips around town and kept the charge topped off so it could be driven to the next journalist who would test it.

"There is a superior battery for EV but Chevron - an oil company - bought the patent on NiMH technology from GM. T.... Chevron refuses to license NiMH for large enough format to power an EV"
I thought you were a typical nutcase conspiracy theorist, but cursory glancing around the web shows that there may actually be truth to this. Anyone else know about the Chevron NiMH patents for car batteries?

There is a superior battery for EV but Chevron - an oil company - bought the patent on NiMH technology from GM. Toyota made an EV using NiMH in 1995 and Chevron sued the EV out of existence. Chevron refuses to license NiMH for large enough format to power an EV, they hold the patent soley to keep EVs out of the market and to perpetuate their oil profits. A fine example of our patent system at work. The patent expires in 2014.

When doing the sums for figuring out the travel costs, don't forget to amortize the cost of a replacement battery. Depending on various factors this will typically be far more than the cost of the electricity.

Somewhere around 60% of car owning households have two cars and around 35% have three or more (Experian Automotive). This sets the stage for a pretty large market potential for all-electrics. The problem comes in when you start with the subtractions.
Apartment dwellers and big city dwellers without easy access to recharging: Someday, perhaps charging stations will be wide-spread enough, but until then, these folks don't really have the option. Unfortunately, big cities are an ideal spot for small electric cars.
People with long commutes are out. Stop and go traffic doesn't eat up fuel while idling as an ICE does, but past a certain commute distance, the uncertainties of range eliminates these folks. If there are sufficient chargers at the work location, this can be mitigated a bit, but currently, supply of chargers is too slim to be practical.
Then you have households where the second and third cars are used by new drivers. This is the prime used car market here. Purchases are primarily driven based on cost of the car. That takes a good portion of these folks out of the picture.
The end result of all of that is that the current and near future market for pure EVs is not all that large. The good news is that will help get EVs out in the hands of early adopters without all of the infrastructure challenges that hold back wide-spread adoption of EVs.

"a consumer driving this car has to do a fair amount of planning"
That is certainly a key problem with EVs. The automobile has given us two generations of suburban-living people because it provides freedom to do anything any time you want. EVs come with so many constraints that it is hard to see them ever becoming mainstream.
Just as well too. Power generation and supply can cope with tiny numbers of EVs, but if, say, 20% of households were to use EVs that would add a huge load to the grid. There just would not be enough supply to charge large numbers of EVs overnight and there would be many people waking up to a flat battery.

Simon...when artificial subsidies are used dislocations in the economy are created. This is not natural market forces at work and usually results in destruction to the economy.
You do not reduce debt by adding more debt. I don't think that ever happens.
In this case it might be good for Nissan and its stockholders but bad for the American taxpayer.

After doing considerable development on the Myers NmG, I find myself on a Vectrix Maxi-scooter. The NmG (Sparrow) on lead-acid was viable perhaps only in the northeast and west coast high density areas. When we went to Li-ion (now a few years on the road, in customer's hands) it suddenly became very viable transportation for south east surburban sprawl. Unfortunately my youngest daughter outgrew the trunk by middle of first grade! My search for a two seat electric finally lead, this February, to the Vectrix - perhaps the most polished EV yet delivered. My daughter, now in middle school, is thrilled to come and go on the bike. After twenty years away from motorcycles, I'm also having a blast. I retain the option of driving the truck on rainy days but have huge incentive not to. Daily commute in the truck? Presently $7.50 to $8. Daily commute on the Vectric - 35 cents. I can do this at least tens months out of the year. And what about replacing those batteries? Well, I bought the Vectric as new old stock after confirming there was someone to warrent the five-year-old-in-the-warehouse battery pack ( for two more years.) Problem is the new ones are Li. Shaves 50 pounds, half second off the already convenient zero to 60 time, and about 60% better range. Can I really bear to wait a several YEARS for the Ni-Mh to die???